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35-574: It is surrounded by the Elizabeth Islands on the south, by Cape Cod on the east, and the southern coasts of Bristol and Plymouth counties in Massachusetts to the northwest. To the southwest, the bay is connected to Rhode Island Sound . The city of New Bedford, Massachusetts is a historically significant port on Buzzards Bay; the Port of New Bedford the world's most successful whaling port during

70-532: A joint French-American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel of IFREMER and Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution identified the location of the wreck of RMS  Titanic , which sank off the coast of Newfoundland 15 April 1912. On 3 April 2011, within a week of resuming of the search operation for Air France Flight 447 , a team led by WHOI, operating full ocean depth autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) owned by

105-751: A joint program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). WHOI is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges . WHOI also offers public outreach programs and informal education through its Exhibit Center and summer tours. The institution has a volunteer program and a membership program, WHOI Associate. WHOI shares a library, the MBLWHOI Library, with the Marine Biological Laboratory . The MBLWHOI Library holds print and electronic collections in

140-460: A liquid solution of sodium hydroxide into the ocean 10 miles south of Martha's Vineyard in an attempt to remove 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution develops technology for the United States Navy, including ocean battlespace sensors, unmanned undersea vehicles, and acoustic navigation and communication systems for operations in

175-483: A new commercial scale mariculture technique. In 1991, towns located on Buzzards Bay suffered the worst effects from the storm surge of Hurricane Bob . The Buzzards Bay disaster happened on April 27, 2003. An oil spill of 98,000 gallons of oil leaked from a barge , destroying much of the shellfish business and killing many birds . Ra Ra Riot 's John Pike's body was found in Buzzard's Bay. He had disappeared from

210-562: A party in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in June 2007, and was found several weeks later in the bay. On January 7, 2018, due to the 2017–18 North American cold wave , part of the bay froze over. Elizabeth Islands The Elizabeth Islands are a chain of over 20 small islands extending southwest from the southern coast of Cape Cod , Massachusetts in the United States . They are located at

245-555: A permanent independent research laboratory on the East Coast to "prosecute oceanography in all its branches" led to the founding in 1930 of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. A $ 2.5 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation supported the summer work of a dozen scientists, construction of a laboratory building and commissioning of a research vessel, the 142-foot (43 m) ketch Atlantis , whose profile still forms

280-643: A productive aquatic ecosystem. Like many estuaries, however, increasing development and land-use changes by the surrounding communities are accompanied by nutrient runoff leading to eutrophication (an increase in nutrient levels leading to oxygen depletion) in the smaller embayments . Decreases in eelgrass , scallops , and herring have also been noted, but direct cause-and-effect relationships are not clear. Coordinated management efforts in Buzzards Bay have helped to decrease shellfish closures, conserve habitat for sea birds , and preserve open space. Buzzards Bay

315-728: The American Geophysical Union , Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography , and several others. Notable scientists include: WHOI operates several research vessels , owned by the United States Navy , the National Science Foundation , or the institution: WHOI formerly operated R/V Knorr , which was replaced by R/V Neil Armstrong in 2015. WHOI operates many small boats used in inland harbors, ponds, rivers, and coastal bays. All are owned by

350-745: The American Revolution , the Battle off Fairhaven , occurred in Buzzards Bay when patriots retrieved two vessels that were captured by the British sloop of war Falcon . On 14 May 1775, American Captain Daniel Egery and Capt. Nathaniel Pope of Fairhaven in the sloop Success (40 tons, 30 men) retrieved two vessels captured by the British crew of Captain John Linzee (Lindsey), Royal Navy commander of HMS Falcon (14 guns, 110 men). Crew member Noah Stoddard and

385-513: The United States Navy . Some of the targets included the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The attacks had been underway since at least April 2017. In August 2024, institution researchers are scheduled, pending approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , to conduct a $ 10 million ocean alkalinity enhancement experiment partially funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that will release 6,000 gallons of

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420-523: The Wampanoag and other indigenous peoples before European colonization. They utilized the islands for hunting and fishing. The Indigenous name, Pocutohhunkunnoh, meaning Lands End, was the inspiration for the name Cuttyhunk Island. Europeans first learned of the islands in 1602 when the English colonizer Bartholomew Gosnold sighted them on his way to Virginia. For three weeks, they built shelter and rested on

455-660: The Arctic. The institution is also working on Project Sundance for the Office of Naval Research. The B. H. Ketchum award, established in 1983, is presented for innovative coastal/nearshore research and is named in honor of oceanographer Bostwick H. "Buck" Ketchum. The award is administered by the WHOI Coastal Ocean Institute and Rinehart Coastal Research Center. Recipients : The Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal in Oceanography

490-448: The Bay at low tide. Listed from northeast to southwest, the named channels are: There are many bluefish and striped bass found in the waters near all the islands. The stripers are drawn in by the rocky coastline of the islands. The abundance of different fish also brings in many different kinds of birds that can easily find pods of topwater fish. There are many different sights to see across

525-594: The First gave the islands to the Council of New England because he did not care to have them. In 1641, Thomas Mayhew the Elder , of Watertown, Massachusetts , bought the islands—along with Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard—from William Alexander , the Earl of Stirling . James Bowdoin and his family owned the islands for over 100 years beginning in the 1700s. Finally the islands were bought by

560-524: The Forbes family in the 1800s. Before the creation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691, the islands were part of the extinct Dukes County, New York . The first known European inhabitant was Francis Usselton, who had been banished at the time for making secret trades with the local Indians without consent from the governor. Since the mid-1800s, the Forbes family, in the form of a family trust, own much of

595-471: The Waitt Institute discovered, by means of sidescan sonar , a large portion of debris field from flight AF447. In March 2017 the institution effected an open-access policy to make its research publicly accessible online. In 2019, iDefense reported that China's hackers had launched cyberattacks on dozens of academic institutions in an attempt to gain information on technology being developed for

630-526: The biological, biomedical, ecological, and oceanographic sciences. The library also conducts digitization and informatics projects. On October 1, 2020, Peter B. de Menocal became the institution's eleventh president and director. In 1927, a National Academy of Sciences committee concluded that it was time to "consider the share of the United States of America in a worldwide program of oceanographic research." The committee's recommendation for establishing

665-438: The birds. On many of the public beaches and islands, it is popular to stop for a few hours and set up a picnic. People are also found snorkeling and swimming in the oceans around many of the islands. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ( WHOI , acronym pronounced / ˈ h uː i / HOO -ee ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to

700-481: The early- and mid-19th century, and has been the nation's most productive fishing port for the last several years. Buzzards Bay was created during the latter portion of the Pleistocene epoch through the interplay of glacial and oceanic processes. Beginning fifty thousand to seventy thousand years ago, the edges of the continental ice sheet covering much of North America began to fluctuate, leaving moraines to mark

735-453: The former extent of the receded ice. One such moraine forms Cape Cod, which is most of the eastern shoreline of Buzzards Bay. In addition to the moraines, the melting ice sheet produced extensive outwash plains composed of mixed sediments and ice that bordered the bay to the northwest and west. Melting ice blocks in the outwash deposits formed distinctive circular features called kettle lakes . Numerous examples of kettle lakes can be found to

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770-489: The institution's logo. WHOI grew substantially to support significant defense-related research during World War II, and later began a steady growth in staff, research fleet, and scientific stature. From 1950 to 1956, the director was Dr. Edward "Iceberg" Smith , an Arctic explorer, oceanographer and retired Coast Guard rear admiral . In 1977 the institution appointed oceanographer John Steele as director, and he served until his retirement in 1989. On 1 September 1985,

805-707: The island's property. The total land area of the islands is 34.55 km² (13.34 sq mi); and there was a permanent population of 75 persons as of the 2010 census , making it the smallest town in Massachusetts. All of the Elizabeth Islands, except Cuttyhunk and Penikese , are privately owned by the Forbes family . However, the Forbes family have other beaches open for public access including: Weepecket, Kettle Cove, West End Beach, Quicks Hole and Tarpaulin Cove. Stretching south-west from land's end at Falmouth , Massachusetts ,

840-478: The islands are: Channels with strong tidal currents, known locally as holes , separate the islands from each other and the mainland. Currents of up to 6 knots (11 km/h) are driven by the different sizes and filling rates of Vineyard Sound to the southeast and Buzzards Bay to the northwest. At high tide, water flows from Buzzards Bay to the Vineyard Sound . Near mid-tide the water stops and reverses, filling

875-543: The islands. However, it was not until 1641, subsequent to the successful establishment of the first English North American colonies, that colonizers formally laid claim to and settled the islands in the name of the English Crown as part of the country's nascent imperial expansion . At this time they renamed the islands after Elizabeth I , who had been Queen of England when the islands had first been discovered by Europeans. They named Cuttyhunk Elizabeth's Isle. King James

910-594: The islands. Some of the most popular include Nashawena Island’s Highland Cattle, Tarpaulin Cove Lighthouse, Gay Head Cliffs, the Naval Lookout Point on Cuttyhunk, and a plethora of wildlife. There are many birds found on Cuttyhunk who are the first birds migrating north in the spring and the last going south in the winter. This is because it is the last or first landmass in the bay. There are wildlife habitats located on Penikese Island that people visit to observe

945-422: The landward boundary of Buzzards Bay extended only to about the current thirty-foot bathymetric contour, forming a coastline two-thirds of the way up the current bay, between West Falmouth and Mattapoisett. The bay's current configuration, a well-mixed central bay and fringing shallow drowned-river valleys, with their shallow depth, tidal action, and surface waves, promotes mixing of the estuarine waters to create

980-527: The northwest of the Cape Cod Canal. Finally, waters released from the melting ice sheet raised sea level by sixty to one-hundred-twenty meters (198–396 feet) and drowned preexisting outwash channels. Toward the end of the last ice age, fifteen thousand years ago until about six thousand years ago, Buzzards Bay was still dry land. During the past six thousand years, sea level has risen an average of one foot per century, and until about four thousand years ago,

1015-552: The others took the first naval prisoners of the war, 13 British crew; two were wounded and one died. The bay was the location, in 1936, of one of only five documented fatal shark attacks in the commonwealth's history. In 1987, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution experimented with a new growth structure allowing Blue mussels to grow above the Benthic Turbidity Zone leading to

1050-482: The outer edge of Buzzards Bay , north of Martha's Vineyard , from which they are separated by Vineyard Sound , and constitute the town of Gosnold in Dukes County, Massachusetts . The island's creation was caused by different gravels and soils entombed inside of glaciers. The glacial movement deposited much material as they melted, thus many small islands were formed. The islands were long known to and utilized by

1085-525: The study of marine science and engineering . Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts , it is the largest independent oceanographic research institution in the U.S., with staff and students numbering about 1,000. The institution is organized into six departments, the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Ocean Research, and a marine policy center. Its shore-based facilities are located in

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1120-581: The village of Woods Hole , Massachusetts , United States and a mile and a half away on the Quissett Campus. The bulk of the institution's funding comes from grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation and other government agencies, augmented by foundations and private donations. WHOI scientists, engineers, and students collaborate to develop theories, test ideas, build seagoing instruments, and collect data in diverse marine environments. Ships operated by WHOI carry research scientists throughout

1155-588: The world's oceans. The WHOI fleet includes two large research vessels ( Atlantis and Neil Armstrong ), the coastal craft Tioga , small research craft such as the dive-operation work boat Echo, the deep-diving human-occupied submersible Alvin , the tethered, remotely operated vehicle Jason/Medea , and autonomous underwater vehicles such as the REMUS and SeaBED . WHOI offers graduate and post-doctoral studies in marine science. There are several fellowship and training programs, and graduate degrees are awarded through

1190-399: Was established in 1960 in honor of the first WHOI Director, biologist Henry Bryant Bigelow . Recipients : Source: Over the years, WHOI scientists have made seminal discoveries about the ocean that have contributed to improving US commerce, health, national security, and quality of life. They have received awards and recognition from scientific societies such as The Oceanography Society ,

1225-604: Was first named Gosnold's Hope by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold . The modern name was presumably given by colonists who saw a large bird that they called a buzzard near its shores. The bird was actually an osprey . After a downturn caused by DDT , today increasing numbers of osprey breed along the shores of the bay thanks to restoration efforts led by the Buzzards Bay Coalition and longtime Westport residents Gil and Josephine Fernandez. The first naval engagement of

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